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Copy 



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A LETTER TO 



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I GEN. STERLING PRICE, | 



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ACCOMPANIED BY 



OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, 



BY 



D. ]VI. FHOST. * 



SAINT LOUIS: 
M. R. CULLEN. PUBLISHER, NO. 03 NORTH FIFTH STKEKT, 

p. M. PINCKARD, PIIINTKU, 78 AND 80 PENE STIJKKT. 









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A LETTER TO 



GEN. STERLING PRICE, 



ACCOMPANIED BY 



OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, 



V BY 



SAINT LOUIS: 
M. R. CULLEN, PUBLISHER, NO. 63 NORTH PIPTH STREET. 

1\ M. PINCKAKD, PKIXTER, 78 AKD 80 PINE STllEET. 

1865. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year I860, by 

D. M. FROST, 

in the Clerh's Office of the District Court of the United Sfotcs for the Easterc' 
District of Missouri. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The following letter to Major-General Price has been printed in this 
form, in order that it may be shown to such of my former friends and 
brother soldiers as I may desire should understand my conduct. 

I deem it comporting with my self-respect that no publication of it should 
be made in the public newspapers, and, therefore, have taken the precaution 
to obtain, under the laws of the United States, a copyright. 

D, M. FROST. 



LETTER. 



Si. Louis, Missouri, November 30, 18G5. 
General Sterling Prick: 

My Dear Sir — I have recently, and by accident, become aware that a 
gross outrage has been perpetrated upon me, and a foul wrong done to my 
good name, by the War Department of the late Confoderato States. It 
seems, from what I can learn, that that Department, among its last acts, 
published my name as a deserter, and thus did what it could to cover it with 
lasting infamy. As that Department has ceased to exist with the Govern- 
ment that organized it, and had so ceased to exist before I learned of the 
Parthian arrow it had loft buried to the feather in my reputation, I cannot, 
of course, look for redress to it, or to that which is so dear to every good 
soldier's reputation — a trial by his peers. 

I am, therefore, constrained to submit to bear a tarnished name through 
the residue of my life, or else resort to the repugnant and humiliating means 
of pleading my own cause with those of my former friends and brother 
soldiers whose good opinion I desire to retain. 

Kespecting and admiring you for those soldierly qualities that rendered 
you Missouri's most distinguished son, and loving you for those social 
qualities that endeared you to all those who had the happiness to be near 
your person, I need not say that I am particularly solicitous to retain, or, if 
I have lost it, to recover that place in your eeteem which I once fancied I 



Therefore it is that I address to you this letter, and I do it all the more 
readily because I know you to be magnanimous and just; you will give me 
& fair trial and a just judgment. I can ask no more. 

You are well acquainted with all the circumstances which led to my 
departure from the Trans-Mi fsissippi Department. You know how my wife 
had been torn by military violence from her helpless young children and sent, 
with limited supplies of money and clothing, by the most circuitous and 
arduous route, within the Confederate lines; how her health became 



6 

impaired by the climate and hardships to which she had been, and was 
still, subjected; how the doors of wealthy inhabitants were closed against 
her, thus forcing her (whilst I was serving in your Corps in front of the 
enemy) to seek the hospitality of a lady friend, and share with her a tent in 
the dank woods of Arkansas : 'all this you were acquainted with, of your 
own knowledge or by common report, and, therefore, you readily granted 
me, by Special Orders, No. 159, from your Headquarters, District of Arkansas, 
a leave of absence for ten days to enable me to look after her welfare. You 
know when I met Lieutenant-General Holmes in the town of Washington, 
o.i his way to resume command of your Corps, he peremptorily revoked the 
leave you had g^-anted me, and ordered me to return at once to my Brigade, 
refusing me even one hour, or one minute, to devote to the object for whicb 
I had just completed a journey of some sixty miles. You know how I 
returned to j'our Headquarters, at Arkadelphia, stung to the quick by this out- 
rageous treatment,and declared to you my determination never to serve another 
d ly under an officer who had put such an indignity upon me, and desired 
you then to accept my resignation, so that I might go and perform my duty 
to my family, by removing my wife to some foreign country and gathering 
her children once more around her; you, in the kindest manner, dissuaded me 
from unconditional resignation, and advised me to try to accomplish that 
object on such a leave as the 'Department Commander would grant. I 
finally accecded to your suggestion, and presented, for yonr action, the fol- 
lowing paper, marked "A," to-wit: 

[A.] 

Headquarters Price's Division, Arkadelphia, Sept. 24, 1863. 
" Colonel S. S. Axderson, A. A. G. : 

Colonel — I have the honor to ask a leave of absence of the period of sixty 
days to enable me to attend to private and domestic affairs of a pressing and 
important nature. Should the Lieutenant-General Commanding the De- 
partment deem it incompatible with his duty to the Government to grant so 
long a leave, then I beg to tender this as an immediate and unconditional 
resignation of my commission as Brigadier-General in the Provisional Army, 
and to request tliat should the action of the President be necessary, I may 
have leave of absence until such action can be taken. 

It is believed that my resignation at this time would not result in any 
material injury to the service. The arrival of Lieutenant-General Holmes 
will render it necessary that General Price should take command of his 
Division, which will reduce me to the command of a Brigade, consisting of 



•one Kegiment and two Battalions, and numbering altogether but five hun- 
dred and eighteen privates for duty. Tliis small force could bo consolidated 
with the rest of the Missourians under General Parsons, thus giving his 
Brigade its full strength and greater efficiency. Should it bo deemed neces- 
eary, however, that this force should remain in its present form under a 
€eparate commander, then some one of the many Brigadier-Generals in the 
Department, without eomnaands, might be assigned to it. 

1 beg that you will lay this paper before the Lieutenant-Goneral Com- 
manding at your earliest convenience. "With much respect, I have the 
honor to be. Colonel, 

Your obedient servant, 

[Signed] D. M. FROST, 

Brigadier-General Commanding." 

The foregoing paper you were good enough to approve and forward. Up 
to this point. General, I have alluded above to circumstances with which 
you were familiar, eitlier of your own knowledge or by common report. I 
shall hereafter say much with which you cannot be expected to be acquainted 
correctly, and in all such cases I shall be prepared to prove my statements by 
one or more credible witnesses, or else to justify my assertions by such cir- 
cumstantial evidence as will convince the most skepticaL Whenever I use 
quotation marks, I use the exact words of the reputed authors. All other 
quotations will express merely the general substance or ideas of conversations* 
as nearly as possible, in the exact words thereof. I had long foreseen the alter- 
native, I would eventually be under the necessity of removing my wife from 
the Confederacy and re-uniting her with her children, or seeing her perish there. 
I had determined upon the former course, and made no secret of it. I had 
presumed that my departure with that object would, in the end, necessitate 
my resignation, and had accordingly declared my intention to resign to many 
of my brother officers, among whom I may mention Generals Fagan and 
Parsons, Majors Cabell, Snead and Maclean, and Surgeon McPheters. 

Before my application to General E. Kirby Smith, through his Adjutant- 
General, Colonel Anderson, could reach him at his Headquarters at Shreve- 
port, he arrived at Arkadelphia. I called upon him to pay my respects and 
learn his views in regard to my contemplated departure from the country, 
and found the Corps Commander with him protesting against my being 
granted a leave of absence. I at once declared to General Smith that I could 
no longer serve under that officer; that he had always treated me with dis- 
courtesy, and that, furthermore, I was persuaded I could never do myself much 
credit or the service much benefit in the Trans-Mississippi Department, 



s 

because of tho hatred and distrust existing in the mmds of the conimir- 
nity against officers of Northern birth ; that I had been stigmatized as » 
traitor all through tho Department at the outset of the war, for not 
beating, at Camp JacRson, General Lyon with bis eight thousand men 
thoroughly equipped, and backed by twenty pieces of artillery, with my 
six hundred without ammunition, and many of whom had not been twenty- 
four hours in camp ; that I was constantly humiliated by hearing the Presi- 
dent censured by prominent men for putting "Northern traitors" in the 
army; and that only a few days before, whilst in conversation with 
a Confederate States Senator about a distinguished officer of the old armj-, 
he (the Senator) had remarked : " The poor fellow is doad, and I must 
"saj'I am glad of it, though I loved him as a brother ; because if he had lived 
"he would have been opposed to us, and his arm would have been a potent 
*' arm, for he was a Northern man, and he was^oo much of a gentleman everto 
"have drawn his sword against the State which had given him bixth." I 
further remarked, in substance, that so long as I occupied a position which 
ethers desired, so long would the tongue of destruction wag against me; and 
that being of Northern birth, no story could be started against me so absurd 
as not to ffnd credence with the great mass of the people, and thus destroy 
my efficiency in the future as it has done in the past. Under these circum- 
stanws, I put it to him whether it would not be better for the cause as well as 
myself to accej)t m}' resignation, and let me go and take care of my family. 
In his reply, General Smith fully recognized the obligations which tho con- 
dition of my private relations imposed upon me, and stated that, under simi- 
ble circumstances, he would (as I did) regard it as a paramount duty to 
attend to them at all hazards. At the same time he expressed the most 
kindly feeling and sympathy for me, and was good enough to sa}' many flat- 
tering things regarding my military capacities and his consequent desire that 
I should remain with him, and try to Mve do'wn the prejudices he knew to 
exist against mo, and finally advised mo to try and accomplish my desires by 
taking a leave of absence of sixty days. He thought it possible that I might 
^iroceed as far as Havana and return Avithin that period, the more certainly, 
as he had heard that a line of steamers was running regularly between tho 
mouth of the Rio Grande and that place. We accordingly entered into a 
calculation upon the subject, and allowing fifty days for the land journey of 
between sixteen hundred and two thousand miles (a large portion of which 
it was supposed might be made by stage conveyance) and ten days for tho 
sea voyage, in sixt\' days the journej^ could bo accomplished. I had, however, 
traveled too much by land and water not to foresee that delays would, ia al) 



9 

probability, arise from bad weather, bad ro.tds, breaking of vehicles, exhaus- 
tion of animals, sickness, or some other of the causes which Provilcnce i)er- 
mits to thwart human calculations, and so expressed mj'self to General 
Smith ; but still, as he so strongly desired it, I would take a leave and do the 
best I could with persevering industry to rciiort back, at his Headquarters, 
within the time he might grant. I accordingly made a copy of the paper 
herein marked "A," which you certified to having endorsed whilst in com- 
mand of the Corps and General Smith approved it, and issued the following 
Order, to wit: 



Special Oudkrs, 
No. 159. 



Headquarters Df.pa'-tmrnt of Trans-Mis<iissippi,\ 
Skrecepoit, La., October 9, 18G3, j 



I. Leave of absence for sixty days is granted to Brgadier-General D. M. 
Frost, P. A. C. S., at the expiration of which lime he will rejoia his 
command. 

By command of 

LIEUT.-GEN. E. KIRBY SMITH. 

S. S. Andersox, Asst. Adj't Gen. 

With this leave of absence in my pocket, I remained in command of ray 
Brigade until, as a part of your Division, I conducted it to what was thought 
to be a permanent winter camp, and then departed on my mission ; and then, 
too, began to arise the difficulties and delays I had anticipated : first, my wife, 
whose health had long been feeble, and for many years precarious with pul- 
monic affection, was suddenly stricken down with severe illness, and for 
eleven days her life trembled in the balance. On the twelfth day, I took her 
forward by short stages, at the risk of a relapse, so anxious was I to keep my 
engagement with General Smith. Other difficulties arose, one after another, 
among the most perplexing of which was the arrival of Federal troops at 
Brownsville, just as I had arrived within a day's journey of that place, and in 
consequence of which I was forced to rccross and ctoss again a sandy desert, 
and make a detour of three hundred miles up one side and down the other of 
the Eio Grande. 

Upon arriving in Matamoras, I found my leave of absence nearly expiied. 
I had long given up the hope of returning to my command within the sixty- 
days granted to me ; but, up to this time, had expected to be able to do so by 
assuming a short absence without leave. Now, I discovered that the term of 
uch absence would become indefinite, or I must abandon my wife in her 



10 

wretchedness, without frienis, in a Mexican town, then seething in the 
throes of revolution, or, as a last alternative, I must resign. The alterna- 
tives before me admitted of no choice; I must resign. I accordingly wrote 
the following letter, marked "B," and sent it back by a faithful servant to 
Gen. Smith's headquarters, to wit: 

Matamoras, Mexico,, November SO. 1863. 
" Coi.. S. S. Andersok, a. a. G., Tranj-Miss. Dep't: 

Sir — In consequence of detention on my journey, first by the dangerous 
and protracted illness of my wife, and next by the occupation of Brownsville 
by the enemy just as I had arrived within one day's journey of that town, a 
large portion of the leave of absence granted me by Special Orders, No. 159, 
had expired before I reached this place. 

Arrived here, I find no vessel will sail for any port outside of the United 
States for sometime to come, and owing, to the existing war in this country, 
I am not permitted to go to any other port to obtain shipping. In the 
meantime, revolutions have been of unusual frequency in this town, no less 
than five changes of government having occurred within a period of less 
thrm that number of days. 

Under these circumstances I feel that I can not leave my wife here unpro- 
tected among strangers, in the midst of civil strife and turmoil; and, there- 
fore, I am constrained to tender my resignation of the position I hold in the 
Provisional Army of the Confederate States. 

Should, however, the Lieutenant-General commanding be of the opinion 
that my services could be still further dispensed with, without injury to the 
service, I would greatly prefer to retain my position, and be authorized to 
report to the War Department in Richmond, which (after disposing my 
family in a place of safet}') I could probably do with much greater facility 
than I could return to the Trans-Mississippi Department, whilst the line of 
the Rio Grande remains in the enemy's hands. It is proper for me to say 
that I have not, nor shall I, draw pay for any time that I have been, or may 
be, absent from duty. 

In any event, and whatever may be the decision of the Lieutent General 
commanding, I beg to assure him that the cause he so ably maintains will 
continue to receive my most cordial sympathy and support; 
X am, sir, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

D. M. FROST, 
Brigadier-Goneral, P. A. C. S." 



11 

More than a month elapsed after forwarding the above letter before I 
succeeded in obtaining a passage on board a small Spanish brig to Havana ; 
nearly all that time had been spent at the mouth of the Rio Grande, in a 
wretched collection of huts, called Bagdad, and compared with which an 
Indian village would rise into the proportions of an imperial cit}'. To this 
place were wo driven by the civil war in Matamoras. Was this a place to 
leave a lady in? 

In the latter part of January, 18G4, w-e arrived at Havana, where we found 
remittances awaiting us, and letters informing us that our friends had 
obtained permission for my wife to return temporarily to New York. I sent 
her to gather up our children, whilst I went round by Bermuda and the 
British Provinces to procure a home for them. Arrrived at St. John, in 
New Brunswick, I learned that the Federal Government had further 
relented, and granted permission for my wife to return temporarily to her 
home in St. Louis. I now felt that my mission had been fulfilled, and began 
to look about for the moans to enable me to report at Richmond, in compli- 
ance with the alternativa expressed in my letter "B." It is true I had 
received no reply to that communication ; but I had assumed from the kindly 
spirit manifested towards me by General Smith, and the readiness with 
which he had approved, and even advised, my undertaking, that he had 
Approved of one or the other of those propositions. I may here state that I 
had another reason than those stated in letter "B " for desiring to serve (if 
permitted to do so at all) in the army East of the Mississippi ; and that was, 
that I hoped to find less of prejudice against me in that army on account of 
my birth-place, and thus be enabled to make for myself some name, or, at 
least, to serve the cause with more efficiency than (my experience had taught 
me) I could do in the Trans-Mississippi. After this statement, you will be 
enabled, my dear General, to estimate the crushing etfect produced upon me 
when a friend, who know that I had been born in New York, showed me the 
correspondence between President Davis and Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, called 
for by the House of Representatives, and officially published in Richmond* 
It seems that Gen. Johnston, in a dispatch to the President, asked for more 
Major Generals to be assigned to his command, to which the President 
replied by informing him that Gen. Sara. French had been ordered to report 
to him. Now, this General French was an officer of the old army, who had 
graduated at the military academy in tho same class with General Grant, and 
he had served through the Mexican war, wherein ho had been brcvetted for 
gallant conduct; and, having resigned from the army, had lived as a 
Southern planter, in Mississippi, for some ten or fifteen years. He was 



12 

aJdicted to no vice, temperate in all things, above suspicion, and as nearly 
above reproach as human nature can be expected to be. General Johnston 
knew all his history, knew him well, and yet he found it necessary to send the 
foHowing in reply to the President's disj^atch : 
To his Excellency Presidcjit Daois : 

It has been suggested to mo that the troops in this Department are very 
hostile to officers of Northern birth, and that, on that account, Major General 
French's arrival will weaken instead of strengthen us. I beg of you to con- 
sider that all the officers of Northern birth are on duty in this Department. 
There is now a want of Major Generals. 

It is important to avoid any cause of further discontent. 

J. E. JOHNSTON. 

Now, General Johnston hai befriended me, before the C. S. Senate, in the 
early stages of the war, and was so free from prejudice that, knowing me to 
be a Northern man, he nevertheless recommended tlie Senate to confirm my 
nomination, which they had held for a period of six months suspended, like 
Mahomet's coffin, for no reason that I could ever learn, save that of my 
nativity, and, perhaps, also, my "Camp Jackson treason;" and yet, in the 
middle of 1863, he felt that the welfare of the service demanded of him to 
protest against Northern-born officers being assigned to his command, and to 
complain that he was already encumbered with more than a just proportion 
of them. 

Knowing by experience the feeling in the Trans-Mississippi Department, 
and learning, as I now did, from General Johnston's dispatch, that the same 
feeling, rather intensified, existed East of the river, I came to the conclusion 
that I could not, in justice to the cause I wished to see succeed, go Soutli, 
and become an incubus to it; neither could I reconcile it to my own self 
respect to place myself in a position to bo further humiliated than I had 
already been. Acting upon these sentiments.. I addressed the following Icttir 
to Adjutant-General Cooper, marked "C," to wit: 

[C] 

St. Johns, N. B., March 2S, 18G4. 

Gex. Sam'l Coopkr, Abj't and Ixspt'b Gen'l, C. S. A., Eichmoxd, Ya.: 

Sir — In the month of M.ay last, my family was broken up and my fivo 
little children deprived of their mother's care, by an order of the Federal 
Government banishing her from her home in Missouri, and sending her 
South within the Confederate lines. Some months' residence in Arkansas 
demonstrated that hor continued sojourn in that climate, combined with the 



13 

mental suffering caused by herseparation from her children, would prcve fatal 
to her life. Under these circumstances I deemed it to be my duty to reunite 
my family in some place of safety and health ; and my command, by the 
accidents of service, havinc; become reduced to less than five hundred men 
for duty, I conceived that I would do the service no injury by obtaining a 
leave of absence during the winter months for that purpose. 

Lieutenant-General E. Kirby Smith, commanding the Trans-Mississippi 
Department, accordingly gave me a leave of absence for sixty days, from Iho 
9th of October, 1863, that time being deemed sufScient to enable me to 
conduct my wife as far as Havana, by the way of the mouth of the Bio 
Grande. 

Owing, however, to delays on my journey, 'arising from the very severe 
illnesi of my wife and the inopportune occupation of Brownsville by the 
Federal troops, my leave of absence had nearly expired by the time I arrived 
at Matamoras. Being unwilling to absent myself without leave — unable to 
obtain an extension in time to avoid that contingency, and equally unable to 
leave my wife alone in Matamoras, then in a state of revolution, or to find a 
vessel leaving that port by which I could have sent her away — I felt myself 
called upon to tender my resignation to General Smith; but, at the same 
time, requested that, if consistent with the welfare of the service, I mit;ht 
be permitted to retain my position and authorized to report at the War 
Department in Kichmond. What action was taken by General Smith upon 
that communication I have been unable to learn. In the meantime, however, 
the object 1 had in view in leaving the Confederacy has been bit very 
recently accomplished; and I Was about to undertake to report at Kichmond, 
"when a copy of the correspondence between President Davis and General 
Joseph E. Johnston, called for by the House of Representatives, anl 
published on the 16th ultimo in Kichmond, fell under my eye. By that 
correspondence I learn ittobe the ojiinion of GeneralJohnston that, owing to 
the hostility of Confederate troops to officers of Northern birth, their presence 
with the army rather weakens than strengthens it. This being the opinion 
of an officer of such high rank as that of General Johnston, and of a gentle- 
man so honorable, so chivalric, and, in every way, so superior to vulgar 
prejudice as I have always looked upon him to be, it must necessarily have ft 
controlling influence upon my action as an o'.licer of Northern birth. 

I cannot, therefore, return to tiie arniy with the knowledge I now have 
that in doing so I would "weaken instead of strengthen it;" and j-et I 
grieve to think that the sacrifices and hfirdships I have mnde and sutlerod to 
serve the cause should have been so entirely in vain as to have i-edounJcd KO 



14 

« 

Its injury rather than its benefit. Whilst I recognize its injustice, yet 1 do 
not complain of a prejudice, which so naturally takes possession of the 
unthinking masses, against all those whose birth-place can be identified with 
that of their persecutors. 

Circumstances seem to indicate, however, that the time may not be more 
distant than next fall when I may find myself serving, to the same end as 
heretofore, with troops to whom my place of nativity will be rather a recom- 
mendation than an objection. 

yhould the Government entertain the same opinion, I would, if permitted, 
gladly retain my position and use it discreetly in its interests. In any event 
I have not drawn, nor do I intend to draw or claim, pay for any time that I 
may be absent from duty ; the resignation tendered by me to General Smith 
may, therefore,Ttake etTect from the 1st of October last, if it should be deemed 
advisable. 

In conclusion, I may be allowed to express the hope that the determination 
of the President in my regard may be communicated to me, and to say that, 
whatever may be that determination, my sympathies and prayers will continue 
with the cause so nobly maintained and illustrated by himself and hi' 
Generals. 

Any communication for me, sent under cover to Major Walker, C. S. 

Agent at Bermuda, will be forwarded to my address. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 
(Signed,) D. M. FROST. 

Having forwarded the foregoing letter under cover to Major Walker, at 

Bermuda, I learned that it had passed into the Confederacy by the following 

letter, marked " D," which I received from that gentleman, to wit: 

St. George, Bermuda, Ajn-'d 15, 1864. 

Brig.-GkNw D. M. Frost, St. Johns, N. B. : 

General — Your favor, of March 28th, is at hand, and in reply I beg leave 

to say that the communication 3"ou enclosed for General Cooper has been 

forwarded per steamship "Edith." 

I shall be happy to forward any other enclosures you may make. 

With much respect, I am 

Your obedient servant, 

N. S. WALKER. 
Per George C. Lewis. 

For some months I expected a reply to the foregoing letter; but as none 
came, I concluded that my resignation had been accepted, and that my 



15 

fidtification to that effect had miscarried, or been captured, and remained 
under that conviction in the British Provinces until some months after the 
Confederate cause was lost, when I was, as heretofore stated, accidentally 
informed of the opprobrious epithet which had been applied to me. 

I think, as I re-read my letter to General Cooper, that it gives sufficient 
reasons to justify any man of proper self-respect in taking the course I did 
and that the qTirit of loyalty and frankness which pervades it deserved a 
'hettsT return than it received. 

I am, therefore, unwilling to believe that General Co'oj.rer, whom I have 
always regarded as a good and .fust man, could have had that letter before 
him when he published the order by which my reputation was assailed. 

I choose rather to think that it had miscarried, or been mislaid, and never 
tvas presented for his consideration. 

But whether the charge v^as made against me in the want of knowledge of 
my case, or deliberately with a full knowledge of all the facts, is immaterial 
to the object I have iu view, which is to show that it is illiberal, unjust and 
untrue. 

My object thus far has been to give you a kno"wlcdge of all the material 
facts of my case, with such an insight into my motives and feelings as will 
enable you to form a correct opinion upon the animus that dictated my 
actions. 

I must now beg of you to bear with me yet a little longer whilst we pro-* 
ceed to analyze the question or try the cause, and to this end I must assume 
some well-known axioms of military law, as follows : 

First, as regards resignations, I will state that any officer, whether civil ot 
military, may, at his own option, lay down, by resignation, the burthens and 
responsibilities incident to his station. 

It IS true that we frequently hear of refusals to accept resignations, but in 
such cases it is usually intended as a compliment to the officer resigning j 
reasons are given, such as valuable services, why he should not persist in his 
determination. He is advised to reconsider, not to act hastily, &c., &c., but 
in all cases if be does so persist, his resignation must be accepted, and hia 
honor remains unimpaired. 

Like all general rules, however, there are some few exceptions to this 
which I will proceed to mention. An officer may not resign with honor on 
the eve of battle, or under orders for a perilous expedition, neither can ha 
resign under charges involving misbehavior before the enemy, embezzle- 
ment or ungentlemanly conduct; but in these latter cases he must be brought 
to trial, and if found guilty, punished, and if acquitted and his resignation 
persisted in, then it must be accepted. I tleed not tell you that none ofthe>y 



It5 

'exceptions exlstol ia my case. Therefore I had a righl to resign, and to pre« 
Sume that my resignation had boan accepted, until I had been notified to the 
contrary. As I was not so notified, my resignation, morally and legally, 
went into effect, and I ceased (honorably ceased) to be an officer of the 
Coji federate army from the date of letter "B," to wit: the 30th of Nov., 1863. 

Again: desertion, in its military sense, is willful absence from duty with- 
tiut permi.-sion and witlioul the intention of returning to it; and to commit 
the crime, one must be in the military service. 

Now, did I wilfully absent myself from duty without permission and with- 
out the intention of returning to it? Certainly not; for I had resigned my 
rank and position, with all its surroundings, to avoid that very contingency. 
"Was I in tlie militarj^ service? without which there can be no desertion. I 
have already shown that I ceased to bo in military service on the 30th of 
November, 18G3, long before this charge was made against me. 

But it mjiy fee urged that General Smith never received my letter "B," 
Anticipating that possibility, I repeated my resignation in my letter, "C," to 
General Cooper. If neither of those letters reached their destination, then I 
might, with propriety, have been reported " Absent without Leave," until 
such time as a knowledge of my resignation was obtained. Even in that 
case ihe report, as every military man knows, should have originated at your 
Division Headquarters. I have the best reason to believe that you did not 
vjVen so report me. 

From you alone, as my Division Commander, could the War Department 
have obtained, if law and custom had been observed, any official information 
regarding me. I may, therefore, safely conclude that that Department acted 
without any official information from the Trans-Mississippi Department, and 
that tile b;ise charge made against me was instigated by some malignant and 
unscrupulous enemy, who found himself near to Richmond and in thoposses- 
eion of the car of tlio.-e in power, and took advantage of his opportunities to 
give me a brutal stab in the back, aimmg his blow at a vital point. 

I think I have now shown that it was necessary and proper for me to quit 
the Confederate service in the Confederate States, and that I took the 
n-.quisite measures to do so in accordance with law and honor. And hero I 
Vest my case. 

I will not apologise for thrusting this paper upon your attention, because I 
know you will always take pleasure in whatever tends to vindicate the honor 
xjf a former subordinate. 

I &m. Genera^., most .•espcctfiilly and sincerely yours, 

D. M. FROST. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS' 



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